I can’t believe I have already finished my first week of work at the transmitter. This week has gone by really fast. The missionary families here have made me feel very welcome here. I really enjoy the trips to and from work, seeing all of the African children getting excited when they see white people. They especially love it when we wave to them. I’m still getting used to the weather here. The past few days it has been a bit cooler, though today it has warmed up again. At work I have been able to turn on the generators, and turn on the transmitter. Early in the week we took some measurements to see if the transmitter was effecting the power in the building. It has been challenging trying to communicate with some of the technicians as my French is not very good. It seems with enough waving of the arms and drawing pictures we are able to communicate. Last night all of the missionary families in the Parakou area got together and played some games. It was fun being able to fellowship with fellow Christians from around the world.
I thought I might add a few pictures now, so you can see a little bit what it’s like here.
Here I am next to the main building entrance
This building is the main building were most of the equipment is housed. Most of the time the building is air conditioned so it feels pretty nice inside.
Step one in drinking water from a bag. Bite the corner and suck while biting.
In Benin they have bags of water. Many times for drinking you just pull a bag from the fridge and have a drink. Once you get the hang of it it’s pretty easy. The first couple times I got myself wet with some of the water.
Here we are looking at the satellite dish for their satellite internet connection.
The man on the far right is Paul. He is the chief engineer at the transmitter. In the middle is David, he is here for about a month and I have been working quite a bit with him. He has been working in radio for many years and I have learned a lot from him already. The guy on the left, oh wait you already know who he is…
This is the flagpole outside the building, flying the Benin Flag. The white flag is a TWR flag.
This is the room I am staying at in Parakou Benin
Here is my room after just having arrived, and unloaded the vehicle. What you can’t see, is a mosquito net that I pull over the bed at night, to try and keep the little blood suckers away. It’s kind of interesting here, most of the windows have glass panes that can be opened to allow air to flow through. Behind the glass is netting to keep out the mosquitoes, or as they call them in Australia, mossies.
Well that’s all for now folks. I apologize for the delay in getting this posted, it’s been a busy week, and the internet is somewhat slow. Thankfully there haven’t been too many power outages this week. Unfortunately I am having some problems with my camera, so I haven’t been able to take as many pictures as I would like to. I will hopefully be able to get it working, so I can show you more what it looks like it. It definitely is much greener then NM. Thanks for all of your prayers. Please pray for the many people groups in Western Africa who don’t have God’s word in their own language. Again thank you for all of your support. I hope you are doing well. Au revoir.
Yesterday night my plane arrive safely in Contonou Benin. After flying for 2 days, I was relieved to no longer have to wait in airports for the next flight. Today we spent most of the morning driving to Parakou. On the ride up I learned that in Benin it is not rude to honk at other drivers, in fact some might even say it is polite. After several hours in the car I can now relax. Tomorrow we will be going out to the radio station to get a tour.
I am very thankful to the Lord for providing me with a safe journey. I was very grateful when I picked up my luggage in Contonou. Thankfully I didn’t really have any problems with security during my trip either. Today I am quite tired but am trying to only go to sleep during the evenings here in order to get accustom to the time change.
Thank you for all of your prayers. I definitely felt them.
At this time next week I will either be sitting in an airport waiting for my next flight or in the air somewhere in Europe. I am really excited for what the Lord has in store for me this summer. Time has been going by really fast recently. This week I will be making sure I have everything I need for the trip. I’m somewhat nervous about the flight over as I will be by myself most of the trip. Please pray for safety, and that I am able to make all of the flight connections without too much trouble.
This week I took a personality test, and have been doing some thinking about how God has put me together, and the things that get me going. I have realized that one thing I could use work in my life is to be more of a people person. This personality test showed both what others think we are, and what we think we are. As you might guess most of the areas that showed up for me, weren’t in the area of people, but were in the area of tasks. I tend to be more of a thinker, and usually am more concerned with getting the job done right then with how my actions can effect others. God has been showing me that while wanting to get things done right, isn’t necessarily bad, but it can be harder on others, when I can come across as though I don’t care as much about how they feel. Maybe it’s something with being the eldest but I know many times I am harder on myself then anyone else. I am always thinking about how I could’ve done things better, instead of seeing how well things turned out. I hope that while in Africa God is able to help me see more how others feelings are also important. I want to work on being less task oriented and a little more people oriented. Please pray that God would show me how to focus more on others, rather then always worrying about getting the task done.
I’m not sure how often I will be able to post updates once I get overseas, but I will try to post some pictures from my flight over sometime next week, and hopefully a few pictures of the actual radio station.
Again thank you to everyone for all of your prayers and support! None of this would be possible without God! Psalm 139
I can’t believe it’s only two more weeks till I head out to Africa! I am incredibly excited for what God has in store for my life. I hope to allow God to use my gifts and abilities as well as my weaknesses to further His kingdom. Again I would like to thank everyone for your support for this summer. Please pray that God would mold me into the man that he wants me to be. Also pray that I will not try to do things for God, but will let God do what He wants with me. I don’t want this trip to be about what I do, but want it to bring glory to God. I am thankful to everyone who has been praying for me over the past sever months, and hope that you will continue.
This is the flagpole outside the building, flying the Benin Flag. The white flag is a TWR flag.